17-Year-Old Nearly Killed by Her Ex-Boyfriend 5 Days After She Ended Relationship

A 20-year-old California man was found guilty Tuesday of attempted murder for slashing the throat of his ex-girlfriend after she broke up with him, PEOPLE confirms.

A Los Angeles County jury also found Jason Scott Gustin guilty of mayhem and the special allegation that he personally inflicted great bodily injury upon the victim under circumstances involving domestic violence and that he used a knife during the crime.

You'll get the latest updates on this topic in your browser notifications.

Gustin is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 4 and faces 29 years to life in prison.

He and the victim, a then-17-year-old girl, had been dating for two years when she broke up with him on Aug. 17, 2016, according to the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office. But she agreed to meet up with him five days later to talk about their relationship.

That’s when Gustin attacked: They were sitting inside his car when he pulled out a box cutter and began slashing her throat and strangling her, prosecutors said.

As the girl tried to flee, Gustin slashed the back of her neck, cut her arm and sliced her right thigh.

• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

She was finally able to escape and ran nearly a quarter of a mile to a convalescent home for help.

Still, Gustin pursued her, prosecutors said, and he even attempted to gain entry to the home but was thwarted by a nurse who locked the doors.

He was later apprehended in Arcadia at his mother’s work.

Gustin’s defense attorney, Ambrosio Rodriguez, says he “suffers from a lot of emotional issues and has deep seated psychological problems.”

Rodriguez maintains that the attack was a “crime of passion,” not premeditated, and he never planned to kill his ex-girlfriend.

“She was his life, and when she broke up with him and ended the relationship it was something he couldn’t accept and reacted in a way that was violent,” Rodriguez tells PEOPLE.

“He didn’t plan to kill her,” he says of Gustin. “He just snapped.”

Gustin, a part-time college student, had the box cutter because of his job stocking shelves at a grocery store, Rodriguez says.

He says his client regrets the attack.

“He [Gustin] was so remorseful he tried to kill himself,” Rodriguez says. “When he was arrested, he was on suicide watch for months.”

You May Like

Read More

Stay in the Know

Subscribe to PEOPLE’s newsletters so you never miss out on a must-read story

Manage Push Notifications

If you have opted in for our browser push notifications, and you would like to
opt-out, please refer to the following instructions depending on your device and
browser. For turning notifications on or off on Google Chrome and Android
click here, for Firefox
click here, for Safari
click here and for Microsoft's Edge
click here.

this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.